Background:
My company acquired an iOS app from a third party developer. The app is popular in its niche (good ratings and a solid number of users). We want to build on top of that popularity, so although we are rebranding it, we definitely want our future versions to show up as updates of the existing app.
From what I understand, this means we'll have to keep using the existing bundle ID, but that's not great (the existing bundle ID has the previous author's actual name in it, which seems unprofessional for us to keep using). Ideally, we would alias the existing bundle ID with our own new bundle ID (something like com.OurCompanyName.OurNewProductName).
Questions:
a) Am I right to understand that there is absolutely zero chance to change an existing bundle ID? No hidden mechanism to set up aliases, no pleading with the AppStore staff, no exceptions?
b) How embarrassing will it be if we keep using the existing bundle ID forever? Where does the bundle ID actually show up (on device system UI, AppStore web UI, public analytics, etc.)?
c) Am I missing something obvious? Surely, many others have been in this exact situation before us. Is there another way for us to update an existing app but use a more appropriate bundle ID?
Thanks!
A) You are correct. The bundle id is the app. You can change the name, the icon, the functionality, everything else, but if you change the bundle id it is a different app. It is the internal identifier that iOS uses.
B) In general, the user will never see it. With some effort they can get the IPA off their device and unzip it, but 99.999% of users wouldn’t do that.
C). No. See my response to A